Видео

Yes the Argerich version is extraordinary and not surpassable in terms of what she brings to it. It is almost a different piece on harpsichord; glad you enjoyed it!

That's certainly true of the popular music . . . but then on the other hand what we're hearing in this video isn't from what was the popular music of its time. And today you can find some new good classical music being written, and played in videos on RUclips. Classical music DID have a bad slump during the middle and late-middle 20th Century, but now it's getting good again. I suspect that the recent great radiation is driven by (somewhat) affordable sequencing and sound synthesis software that actually sounds good, but that can't be the whole explanation, because the revival of good sound was already starting in the 1990s (maybe even 1980s), well before such things existed.

That’s an overly generous compliment, but much appreciated 🙂

Thank you so much for your comments. I agree this one and its pair k. 208 are sublime and represent a ‘perfection’ of the form. I don’t have any particular favourite but these are definitely special.

@@davidlouie Fantastic work David. Cheers

It’s definitely not easier, but it’s what the composer instructs in the score. Kirkpatrick wrote about this particular case in his book and explains it well.

That’s great, because if music were candies, these would be it! Random selection is probably as good a place to start as any. Thanks for commenting!

Wow, thank you!

Thanks so much for your very observant comment! Your eyes are good 😊! There is evidence that it had become common to use a mixture of ‘old’ and ‘new’ fingering, even during Scarlatti’s time. Certainly many passages in his sonatas require a modern approach to fingering.

@@davidlouie yes, I just finished going through Couperin’s book, and I found it amusing that a lot of the “Baroque fingering” that we’re supposed to be familiar with really isn’t all that different from modern fingering, aside from extended scale passages. That being said, I spend most of my time with Renaissance music where it’s way more “strict” the to point where you have to make sure your paired fingerings change on the beat and not syncopated. But it matters because the sound is so very different!

Something else that I noticed: Reading CPE Bach's Essay, he says to NOT use 3 crossing over 2 (even though they certainly DID use that fingering before CPE Bach's time), so I am wondering if Scarlatti, being Italian, still would have used that fingering as you are using it yourself, given Scarlatti was alive during most of the same time. Very interesting!

@@seancregomusic Interesting question. I think it’s a matter of comparing the fact that these two great composers and keyboard masters (CPE Bach and Scarlatti) had different approaches to their art in that one wrote a comprehensive essay explaining the theory behind it and the other did not. But in the end they achieved the same heights, and as all great composers have in common, their achievement is not quantifiable in any regular or consistent way. One gets the impression from CPE Bach’s music that he broke his own ‘rules’ on occasion, and from Scarlatti’s that he invented his own in direct contradiction to what others might consider ’correct’.

@@davidlouie ya, that’s how I’ve always thought about it, despite my professors debating me on it in college 30 years ago. So, it’s nice to hear you say it. You’re more of an expert than I am, despite my own credentials!

Many thanks for noticing and for commenting 🙂

You’re most welcome, and many thanks for your comments as always!

Many thanks, the manuscripts are on IMSLP. The Parma series is here: imslp.org/wiki/Manuscript_Collection_of_Harpsichord_Sonatas%2C_I-PAc_F.Psi.I.48_(Scarlatti%2C_Domenico)

Thanks!

Thank you for your comments and perceptive observations, much appreciated!

Thank you so much. The temperament is my interpretation of Bach’s temperament. The chords you are referring to have added (or altered) notes for dissonant colour and accent. Possibly derived from a folk music technique (guitar), but figures rather often in Scarlatti’s harpsichord music.

@@davidlouie Very interesting. They are notated as grace notes in my edition which i always thought would mean they only sound very briefly - but i think rather than letting go it sounds so much better as a fat and dissonant chord. Another question for you re temperament- do the loopy figures at the top of the cover page of the manuscript of the WTC bear any relation to your tuning system? As you must know, some have hypothesised that they are an algorithm for the “Wohl” temper!

@@richardedmond7107This is an early piece. The grace notes make their function clear but later he didn’t bother with this notation and just wrote the extra notes into the chords. My interpretation of Bach’s temperament is here: davidlouiepiano.com/index.php/bach-louie-temperament/

Will check out your paper. Sorry I only acknowledged your kind reply now. A month later I can’t help but come back to this haunting little sonata. It has a quality I find hard to describe. Insistent and bittersweet. Thanks again for your superb recordings of the glorious Scarlatti

You're so welcome!

Thank you so much for complimenting the instrument. The name of the maker is Robert Hicks, and he has a deep knowledge of harpsichord sound.

Aha no worries. Top end is crystal clear and the bass is so sonorous and penetrating. I’m blasting your recordings! Where is Mr Hicks based?

Haha, many thanks! Robert is based in Vermont, USA

Thank you 🙏

Thank you very much! It’s certainly not one of the more famous Scarlatti sonatas, but there are countless many that are just as wonderful as the more familiar ones. Thanks for noticing and for commenting.

Thank you, much appreciated!

Many thanks for your message and for listening!

Yes, it’s true that he doesn’t shy away from E major and the rather quirky colours this key inhabits in the keyboard tunings of the day.

Bach certainly had an obsession with numbers and their application to composition. In this Scarlatti piece, the usual paired sonatas are combined into a single sonata, highlighted by the changes in time signature from cut time to 12/8, and from major to minor. It lends to its extraordinary length, as this sonata occupies 8 pages in score rather than the usual 4. Glad you like it!

Thanks very much! I agree, especially the passage opening the second half is especially unusual and interesting.

Hi, yes, definitely f minor is a special key. In the historical tunings (temperaments) it is highly coloured because of the A-flat in the tonic chord.

I was just thinking that Bach too had a special relationship with f minor. I have a theory that there was some religious significance to this. Mano destra was a well known belief. So much chromaticism. Seems like they are thumbing their noses at the devil! Cheers@@davidlouie

Many thanks 🙏!

Excellent point. They are both ridiculously difficult to perform.

Thanks, this particular sonata is probably the most demanding in exactly the way you describe.

Thanks. It does have what you describe, especially in the second half. But the extended passages with crossed hands are the most unusual feature…